Daily Times

Journalism is a noble profession across the world when observed with its true essence. However, in many societies, journalism has lost its worth for being either biased or practiced for some particular purposes. In such societies, if anyone tries to practice true journalism, the threats – online or in person – will follow him, which has become a “trend in the Pakistani society’s framework” to a great deal. On the other hand, keeping the journalists away from the original ground facts has driven the journalism in the country towards a dense darkness. The case is even worse in Balochistan, the largest-by-area province of Pakistan, where it is believed that the media is a ‘blackout’.

Kiyya Baloch, a freelance Baloch journalist, has faced such severe threats only in the recent when he was reporting on the issues of Balochistan. He was labelled as “out of the context of journalism” and “learn the ABC of journalism and then come for reporting”, including some life-taking threats of abduction and killing. “Journalism has been an increasingly difficult job in Pakistan,” Baloch says adding that “it is more difficult in a conflict zone like Balochistan”.

We also have an example of Sajid Hussain, a Baloch journalist in asylum who was abducted on March 2, 2020, and his body was thrown on May 1 the same year near a lake in Uppsala (Sweden). He was the founder and editor-in-chief of an online site “The Balochistan Times” and used to report on the issues related to Balochistan.

Baloch believes there is a rising interference from the state and non-state actors in journalism which makes it tough for the journalists to work fairly and unbiasedly in the region. Further clarifying his point, the Baloch journalist adds that the state wanted them to paint “all is a good picture” while the non-state actors wanted them to write the opposite. “In-between the two, fair journalism becomes a daydream.”

In fact, as a journalist in Balochistan, one has always to be “biased” to make his existence around the clock, or else he is never accepted. In other simple words, a massive challenge journalism faces in Balochistan is they need to be partial to be acknowledged from either side. In case of being neutral, he will have to quit journalism. Coming to the essence of journalism, a journalist can only report and not judge. If he begins to be prejudiced, he has to ‘decide’ more than keeping the original facts in front of his readers. “This is where we lose the essence of ‘true journalism’ in Balochistan.”

Baloch has been found, in the very present, of reporting on violence going on in Balochistan. He says that amid violence, “reporting independently has become more difficult, especially with the rise of social media where everyone wants to impose their idea on you”. As insurgency continues in Balochistan, you have to be, according to the norms created here, one-sided in reporting.

Mohammad Kazim, reporter of BBC Urdu and Daily Jang and based in Quetta, seconds Kiyya Baloch here saying that an absence of umbrella of freedom in a region like Balochistan, or where the journalists are kept in an atmosphere of fear, they can only produce one side of an occurrence, or that version of an event which suits the powerful quarters or the groups with the mainstream power. “As far as journalism with its true essence is concerned, or the journalism which is being practiced in civilised world, is ‘missing in Balochistan’ – and in entire Pakistan as well.”

When you are biased and reporting, you can never produce a productive work for your audience reading or watching you for seeking the truth. Kazim believes that journalism in countries where there is no democracy or where the gun is mightier and supreme, journalism can be free to little extent only, which may be insufficient to make journalism free from external forces. How come one even imagine free journalism or reporting when kept under such a fearful circumstance?

Concluding my points, being a journalist is a tough job, especially when reporting in a conflict zone like Balochistan is even a harder task. You have to be limited and also bear trolls launched against you online, mostly in the social media in the given age, which are, as Baloch quotes, intimidating, meaningless, and abusive. They are label-less allegations which cause self of insecurity and mental disturbance to a journalist resulting in curbing his career as a journalist. The question is, for how long will Balochistan continue to face the same situation when it comes to true journalism?

The writer is a law student and tweets at @Alijanmaqsood12.